The rod that broke into pieces on St. Bridget's back

UPPLAND, Sweden, about 1313 AD — Saint Bridget of Sweden was ten years old when she heard a sermon on the Passion. That’s the suffering and death of Christ. That same night, according to longstanding Catholic Tradition, she saw Christ on the cross. He looked as though he’d only just been nailed there. It wasn’t her first vision. She’d been having them since she was seven.

Christ said to her, “Thus am I tortured.” St. Bridget asked him, “O Lord, who has done this to Thee?” Christ answered, “Whoever despises Me and spurns My love does this to Me.” After that night, St. Bridget could hardly ever think about Christ’s suffering without crying.

Before St. Bridget turned twelve, her mother died. St. Bridget and her sister were sent to Ydre, in the province of Östergötland. There their mother’s sister was to bring them up.

Out of bed in the dark

Tradition tells of one night in the aunt’s house, when St. Bridget was about twelve. The aunt went to the girl’s bed. She found St. Bridget out of it, kneeling on the floor beside it. The aunt sent for a rod to beat her. She laid the rod on St. Bridget’s back. At once, it broke into small pieces.

The aunt was amazed, and she asked her niece, “Birgitta, what have you done? Has some woman not taught you some false prayers?” St. Bridget was crying when she answered: “No, lady. I only got out of my bed to sing and praise him who always helps me.”

The aunt asked who that was. St. Bridget told her, “Our crucified Lord whom I recently saw.”

From that day on, the aunt honoured St. Bridget and loved her more than before. Decades later, the Church looked closely at St. Bridget’s life before declaring her a saint. The same aunt who had sent for the rod told the Church these stories of her girlhood.